Headshot of Scott Wood

Scott T. Wood, Ph.D.

Director, Portland Laboratory for Biotechnology and Health Sciences

Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences

Location

Pharmacy 320
Portland Campus for the Health Sciences
Eligible for Student Opportunities

The Wood lab focuses on using tissue engineering strategies to better understand, quantify, and predict the behavior of cells in response to physical stimuli. They focus on investigating the homeostatic role of the chondrocyte cytoskeleton and its intersection with integrin signaling pathways and on the development of a Microphysiological Articular Joint In a Chip (MAJIC) to model the multi-tissue nature of human articular joints in a microfluidic system that can be used as a drug screening tool.

Credentials

Education

Ph.D. in Bioengineering
Clemson University
2011
M.S. in Bioengineering
Clemson University
2010
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Texas Tech University
2005
Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship
Clemson University
2011

Expertise

  • 3D printing
  • Applied mathematical analysis
  • Atomic force microscopy
  • Biomaterials
  • Biomechanics
  • Biomedical research
  • Cell culture
  • Data analysis
  • Fluorescence microscopy
  • Image analysis
  • Immunocytochemistry
  • Knee osteoarthritis

Post-Doctoral Training

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Richard Loeser, M.D. Lab, Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) & Department of Internal Medicine-Section on Molecular Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine (Winston-Salem, NC), 2012-2016

Research

Selected publications

  • Nix Z*, Kota D*, Ratnayake I*, Wang C, Smith S, Wood ST. Spectral characterization of cell surface motion for mechanistic investigations of cellular mechanobiology. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. 2022. 176:3-15. doi: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2022.08.002.
  • Saraswat R*, Ratnayake I*, Perez EC†, Schutz, WM†, Zhu Z, Ahrenkiel SP, Wood ST. A micropatterned biphasic nanocomposite platform for maintaining chondrocyte morphology. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. 2020. 12(13):14814-14824. doi:10.1021/acsami.9b22596. 
  • Collins JA, Wood ST, Bolduc JA, Nurmalasari NPD*, Chubinskaya S, Poole LB, Furdui CM, Nelson KJ, Loeser RF. Differential Peroxiredoxin Hyperoxidation Regulates MAP Kinase Signaling in Human Articular Chondrocytes. Free Radical Biology and Medicine: 2019. 134:139-152. doi:10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.01.005. 
  • Nelson KJ, Bolduc J, Wu H, Collins JA, Burke EA, Reisz JA, Klomsiri C, Wood ST, Yammani RR, Poole LB, Furdui CM, Loeser RF. H2O2 oxidation of cysteine residues in c-Jun N-terminal kinase 2 (JNK2) contributes to redox regulation in human articular chondrocytes. The Journal of Biological Chemistry: 2018. 19;293(42):16376-16389. doi:10.1074/jbc.RA118.004613. 
  • Meyerink J, Kota D*, Wood ST, Crawford GA. Transparent Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes: Processing, Characterization, and Application in Establishing Cellular Response Mechanisms. Acta Biomaterialia: 2018. 79:364-374. doi:10.1016/j.actbio.2018.08.039. 
  • Wood ST, Long DL, Reisz JA, Yammani RR, Burke EA, Klomsiri C, Poole LB, Furdui CM, Loeser RF. Cysteine-Mediated Redox Regulation of Cell Signaling in Chondrocytes Stimulated with Fibronectin Fragments. Arthritis & Rheumatology: 2016. 68(1):117. doi:10.1002/art.39326. Featured article. 
  • Collins JA, Wood ST, Nelson KJ, Rowe MA, Carlson CS, Chubinskaya S, Poole LB, Furdui CM, Loeser RF. Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress Promotes Peroxiredoxin Hyperoxidation and Attenuates Pro-Survival Signaling in Aging Chondrocytes. The Journal of Biological Chemistry: 2016. 291(13):6641-54. doi:10.1074/jbc.M115.693523. 
  • Wood ST, Dean BC, Dean D. A Computational Approach to Understand Phenotypic Structure and Constitutive Mechanics Relationships of Single Cells. Annals of Biomedical Engineering: 2013. 41(3):630. doi:10.1007/s10439-012-0690-5. Cover article. 
  • Wood ST, Dean BC, Dean D. A linear programming approach to reconstructing subcellular structures from confocal images for automated generation of representative 3D cellular models. Medical Image Analysis: 2013. 17(3):337. doi:10.1016/j.media.2012.12.002. 
  • Hemmer JD, Nagatomi J, Wood ST, Vertegel AA, Dean D, LaBerge M. Role of Cytoskeletal Components in Stress Relaxation Behavior of Adherent Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. Transactions of the ASME: 2009. 131(4):041001. doi:10.1115/1.3049860. 

*Directly Supervised Graduate Student
†Directly Supervised Undergraduate Student 

Other scholarly activity

Patents
Issued Patents 

  1. Wood, S. inventor; South Dakota Board of Regents, assignee. Micropatterned Hydrogel for Cell Cultures. United States Utility Patent Application No. 16/838,511. 2020, Apr 2. (Disclosed 2019, Jan 31.) 

Pending Patent Applications 

  1. Wood, S. inventor; South Dakota Board of Regents, assignee. Microfluidic Platform for Culturing Cells. United States Design Patent Application No. 29/953,487. (Disclosed 2024, Apr 26.) 
  1. Wood, S. inventor; South Dakota Board of Regents, assignee. Biomimetic Joint on a Chip. European Utility Patent Application No. EP 2022792167. 2022, Mar 21. (Disclosed 2021, Mar 9.)  
  1. Wood, S. inventor; South Dakota Board of Regents, assignee. Biomimetic Joint on a Chip. United States Utility Patent Application No. 63/201,248. 2021, Apr 20. and No. 18/487,600. 2023, Oct 16. (Disclosed 2021, Mar 9.)  

Children’s Books

  1. Taken Alive-Rencountre J. and Wood S (authors), Walker-Jensen E. (Illustrator). Zaniya and the Healing Drum: Where Indigenous Knowledge and Scientific Discovery Meet. 1st Edition. Self-Published: Amazon, 2024.  
  1. Taken Alive-Rencountre J. and Wood S (authors), Walker-Jensen E. (Illustrator). The Healing Drumbeat. 1st Edition. Self-Published: Amazon, 2024.  

Published Teaching Activities

Funded grants

  1. National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnerships for Innovation-Technology Transfer Award #2234590: “PFI-TT: Modular Joint-on-a-Chip for Early In Vitro Pre-clinical Pharmaceutical Research.” PI; $250,000, 2023-2025.
  1. National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award #2144240: “CAREER: Integrin-Mediated Mechanotransduction of Articular Chondrocytes.” PI; $701,713, 2022-2027.

Research topics

Atomic Force Microscopy
Biomaterials
Biosignaling
COM Faculty Research
Drug Interactions
Nanotechnology
Spectroscopy